


The Camera is Rolling.

by OneManBikerGang



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-04-28 03:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5076616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneManBikerGang/pseuds/OneManBikerGang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an AU where pretty much everyone under the age of 20 in Arcadia Bay, and a fair few over it, have begun their own Youtube channels, some things will remain the same as in other worlds. Primarily, Max being clumsy and the wonders of awkward teenage romance.</p>
<p>Based on art by Ormille on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“And remember, guys- any songs you’d like me to cover, just say it in the comics! Max out.” A smile, along with very nearly fumbling a guitar to the ground, and the video was over, aside from the boring business of balancing the audio and exporting it. After a year and a half of working on her covers, Max had gotten fairly proficient at it, along with the occasional aid of a friend, and didn’t stress out about it as much as she did when she started out on Youtube.

Of course, there wasn’t much to worry about in all honesty. When put in comparison to the tens of thousands of Youtube channels offering acoustic covers, Max was a fair bit ahead of the competition, from a mixture of editing to keep the audio crisp and with over a decade of guitar playing. Was she the best? Of course not, and most likely never would be. Was she bothered by that fact? No moreso than the usual person was.

As she stood up to place her guitar back in the corner of her room, Max couldn’t help but let out a tiny sigh. She wasn’t making the videos for anything except for her own pleasure, but the recent dip in views was rather disheartening. She couldn’t even pinpoint the reason, either- unaware if her playing had become worse, or if people were simply tired of acoustic covers. It wasn’t something she could easily find out, much to her sadness.

She couldn’t let the thoughts plague her, not at that time. The channel, despite how much effort she put into it, was a hobby. A hobby that generated a miniscule profit, but a hobby nevertheless. She had more important things to worry about, things to prioritize ahead of her music. After all, the autumn term was ending in a matter of weeks. There were sure to be exams and quizzes that, whilst ultimately being unimportant, would nevertheless result in teachers pressuring them to study for. She certainly knew that her photography professor was still hounding her about the “Everyday Heroes” contest, the deadline for which was approaching even quicker than end of term, and she only had two photos she’d even consider submitting to it.

Before she could wallow in her sadness and doubt for too much longer, her phone chirped out, a tuneless little ditty ripped from her own friends channel. She scrambled to the bedside table of her room and picked it up, cursing herself for not bothering to see who was calling. If she’d answered a spam caller once more, she’d be roped into the conversation on buying useless insurance for at least half an hour, unsure of how to exit the conversation without feeling like a bigger jackass than the winner of the “Tennessee State Fair Mule Competition.”

“Hey, Slam-Max!” Vaguely whiny male voice that somehow managed to be endearing, a cheerfulness in it that was rarely-if-ever shaken off, cheesy nickname… There was only one person that could ever be. Taking a seat on her bed, leaning against the wall, Max replied as best as she could.

“Hey, Warren Peace… How’s things?” Of course, if he was going to stick to the cheesy nicknames, then so would she. After knowing one another for over two years they’d inevitably repeated them countless times, but that didn’t matter, did it? Not between friends. “And before you ask, no, I haven’t shown Mister Jefferson that selfie you took next to the lighthouse.”

“What? I’m telling you, Max. That’d win your contest. It takes a hero to take a selfie on a cliff, especially at night time. Anyone else would be too scared!” His voice had taken on that offended tone it only ever did when they were alone together, small digs between friends that ultimately never mattered. “Anyway, anyway… I know you’re still too much of a hipster to get on Twitter-” “Guilty as charged, captain.”

“But one miss Pricey Encounter, AKA Chloe Price, AKA the girl you’ll never stop crushing on till the day you either die or court one of Blackwells many skater boys…. Is currently down at the Two Whales, and will be for a while.” Max let out a tiny giggle after a self-indignant huff, pouting as if she were the biggest diva to ever grace Blackwell. “Now, I’ve missed out on going for a meal with Stella whilst waiting for you to finish your latest revolutionary video. Will you do me the honors of a meal at the Two Whales?”

“Well, I was going to do something important, like finishing the chocolates my mom mailed me, but…” Max let out an exasperated sigh and moved from her sitting position to grab her bag, double checking that her purse was still inside of it. “You just try to not crash on the drive there, okay? I’m too cute to meet the Reaper.”

“Sure thing. Meet you in the parking lot, Maximum Cauliflower.” Head shaking from Warren’s punderful existence, Max hurried down to meet Warren at his battered car, the dorms surprisingly quiet minus the odd giggling from Dana’s room. She didn’t feel as if the two were on good enough terms for her to ask exactly what the girl was up to, and was in too much of a rush to actually care.

Thankfully, none of the campuses incredibly annoying security guards saw fit to annoy Max and she was sitting on Warren's passenger seat before even ten minutes had passed. He gave her a small smile before pulling out and taking to the road, the radio set to one of the local broadcasting stations- mindless pop for a mindless drive. “So… When you said that Chloe is down at the Whales, did you mean she posted it on her own twitter, or the one for her channel?”

Silence was the truth and revealed Warren’s answer, Max sighing. “I swear. You are gonna get your ass kicked one day, Warren.” 

“Maybe, but if it’s from a pretty girl I won’t complain too much, you know?” His hands flew up in a pacifying gesture as they stopped at a red light, wincing at Max’s near murderous look. “Heyhey. Joking. I’m not gonna go antagonizing your crush, promise. I mean, intentionally. You know I’ve got issues with people liking me.” Which was true, but more thanks to Warren having the type of personality she’d class as “sweet yet annoying little brother” rather than anything actually frustrating. He was much more endearing once you got to know him, but many were unwilling to get past that first teen boy height hurdle.

“Good. I’ll keep being on Stella’s good side again. Unless she ask-”

“Asks you to play Wonderwall, again. Max, I never knew someone who likes Oasis could be so… Aggressive towards one of their songs. I mean, you know I love cheesy, terrible movies. I love Ed Wood! but you won’t see me blowing up when someone mentions Glen or Glend-” He sighed, only just catching Max’s irked expression. “Rambling again. Sorry, sorry. I just think you get irrational about them.”

“And I think that you’re in love with a bunch of movie dudes who died back when you weren’t even born. Let’s agree to disagree.” She shrugged and glanced out the window, surprised to find them pulling up to the diner's parking lot already. Much as they could annoy each other as friends do at times, it certainly did help them in passing the time. The diminutive girl hopped out of the car and motioned for Warren to follow quickly, going over things in her head once more. She needed, beyond anything else, to not appear like she was a rambling fan once more.

She and Chloe had met before- thankfully when Max was in her “let’s dye my hair the colours of the rainbow!” phase, unrecognizable in comparison to the present- and she wished to avoid appearing like an utter fool again to someone she looked up to/crushed on/was very possibly jealous in a tiny way about the amount of views she averaged with every video. She needed, above anything- above everything- else to appear like a normal person, going out for dinner with her equally dorky friend, happening to meet a cute girl she occasionally watched on youtube. 

She could do that. She wasn’t just anyone. She was Maxine Caulfield, guitar playing genius and champion-level flirter. She’d knock Chloe off her feet. She’d dazzle her. She’d make the girl regret living in Arcadia Bay without knowing Max beforehand. She’d-

Get knocked onto her ass thanks to the diner's door opening into her face.


	2. The Camera is Rolling, Chapter Two.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max falls down, falls for someone, and talks with one of her closest friends some more.

Max wasn’t a complete stranger to falling onto her ass. It’d been proven time and time again that she lacked some of the more basic elements of coordination that most people took for granted. However, she was more used to dropping things than actually falling over. She couldn’t hide the pain on her face when her butt collided with the ground, nor could she stop herself wheezing from it. 

A hand was soon offered to her which, despite all the trashy romance novels she’d read, did not belong to an angel. For one, angels were technically wheels, if her senile grandmother wasn’t as… Out there as she remembered. The girl above her most certainly wasn’t an angel, at any rate- she was too unruly looking and, in the scheme of things, wasn’t what anyone would expect to greet them in heaven. Paradise, maybe.

Certainly Max’s paradise, considering it was Chloe Price. Her eyes widened slightly as she rose and tried to play the injury off as nothing, smiling meekly. “Woah, dude. I did not mean to do that. You alright? You’re looking pretty dazed.” 

“What, me? I’m fine. I eat falls like that for breakfast.” An almost unnoticeable pause occurred, followed by a rather noticeable and embarrassed smile on Max’s face. “That sounded better in my head, jeeze… But, uh, yeah, I’m fine. No hard feelings.” So far, meeting the titular star of Pricey Encounters wasn’t going as she’d planned. Things seldom did, of course, but Max still felt she had the right to complain.

Warren had finally caught up and looked at Max with all the concern of a kitten who suddenly couldn’t see a toy, only having heard a rather loud thump and nothing else. “Hey, Max. Is everyth-” 

“Wait. Max? Shit, I knew you were familiar! Max Fidelity, right?! I listen to you all of the time!” Of all the things that Max had expected for the day, Chloe recognizing her, and not the other way around, was not something she’d planned on. The brunette waif looked at her in surprise, sputtering for an answer.

“You’re kidding me. I, uh… Watch your stuff religiously! Well, not religiously, I don’t dress in my Sunday best and eat stale crackers with wi-” If Warren could ramble with the best of them, then Max was the actual best of them. She did, however, know how to shut herself up, trailing into a mumbled silence, accompanied with a vaguely red hue taking to her cheeks.

“Hey, it’s alright. I’m a fan of you, you’re a fan of me, we’re a hella happy family. Look, uh, I’m sorry for knockin’ into you, dude, but I gotta jet. Personal stuff.” She grumbled, shaking her head. “Hit me up on twitter or something, ‘kay? Didn’t even know you were in the Bay…” Chloe herself trailed off whilst trotting over to the car park of the Diner, Warren smiling as he got to Max’s side.

“You did it, Max. You met the girl you’ve been after for months! Aren’t you proud of yourself?” He asked, stepping inside whilst holding the door open for her.

“Me? I’m great. Overjoyed. I met Chloe, and… She probably thinks I’m a giant idiot who can’t walk.” Struck with the embarrassment often felt only after a conversation was over, she ran a hand through her hair, faint clouds descending on her mind.

“Max, it’ll be fine. I mean, you… You literally poured coffee on me the second time we hung out. I’m sure she won’t mind you being a giant dork.” Patting her on the shoulder, they made their way to a booth in the corner, passing by a few familiar faces from Blackwell- a mousy girl from Minnesota there on a scholarship who, frankly, had an odd obsession with wrestling, a lanky ginger guy that Warren referred to as “Phil ‘n Dip” for a reason she’d never found out and a few of the people Max knew in her photography classes. 

“Yeah, yeah…” She groaned and shook her head whilst looking over the menu, now faced with one of those choices that had plagued humanity throughout the ages- what was love, if it moral to kill and whether to have a burger or calzone for dinner. “I swear, if I’ve messed it up with another girl I’m gonna just bury myself in polaroids. Maybe someone could take a picture of that for Jefferson’s damn contest…”

“Slam-Max? What’d Kate say if she saw you cursing?” Warren teased, smiling as one of the staff at the Diner came over to them, notepad in hand. “You wouldn’t wanna disappoint your bunny, right?” Not that he’d call Kate that to her face. It was too personal of a nickname, one she only really tolerated from Max and nobody else.

“She’d probably not mind, Warren. If you haven’t noticed, Kate’s really live and let live.” A veritable subversion of McCartney sang, in fact. She straightened up from her slumped over state to speak to the waitress, taking on a neutral tone to make their orders. Two minutes later, a glass of pepsi in front of Warren and one of Professor Salt for Max, they were left to wait for their orders, Max crossing her arms.

“Kinda hard not to notice, Max. I swear, she’s the most forgiving person out there. I feel guilty watching her channel. Like I’m talking to a priest- just that… That relaxed and soothing. It weirds me out.” That was enough to take Max out of her mood, shoulders shaking as she tried to not make a scene.

“Well, it’s nice to know that I can just use Kate to guilt you into doing anything. Although I doubt she would. She’s too nice.” The type of nice that often attracted the ire of other students in Blackwell, but she didn’t let it bring her down- it wasn’t water off a duck's back, but it didn’t sour her outlook either. Max viewed Max as not just her best friend but an inspiration- something that many did, given just how popular her channel had become in recent months. Bless her heart, as Kate’s father would probably say, she'd never actually monetized a single video. 

A claim that Max couldn’t aspire to- even if it barely gave her anything, Max would take every single penny she could get her hands on, to the extent that she was in the latter stages of putting together an EP to sell. She couldn’t pay it too much attention for a while, however, thanks to the steadily mounting pressures of the school year and of the simple fact it was a pain in the ass to do.

“Yeah, please don’t weaponize Kate. It’s bad enough with me trying to get Stella on a date, I don’t need any more girls making things difficult.” He sighed himself for once, fidgeting on his side of the booth.”I think she might be up for going the drive-in on Saturday, but… Women are a mystery, Max. An attractive mystery that I’ll never understand.”

Biting her tongue, Max simply shrugged, not in the mood to disagree with Warren. You don’t argue with your friends, especially when they’re paying for your food. “I’m sure she’ll go with oyu. She’s just stressed. You’ve seen how she gets with science… I’m telling you, you just need to offer to tutor h-”

Before she could fully advise Warren, however, her phone chimed out and she gave him an apologetic smile, recognizing the ringtone as a rather important one- the type she’d answer without question, a privilege given to two people, one of whom was sitting opposite her at the moment. 

“Hi, Kate. What’s up?”


	3. The Camera is Rolling, Chapter Three.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max talks on the phone, acts like a gigantic dork, and talks with quite possibly the only dorkier person in the entirety of Arcadia Bay some more.

It was a bit rude of her to answer the phone while talking to Warren, Max knew that. But it wasn't as if he hadn't done the same in the past, and- in general- he was a pretty nice guy. Giving him an apologetic smile, she greeted Kate and made sure she was comfortable in her seat. For someone who was typically meeker than your average mouse, Kate Marsh could go on and on and on for longer than most people could without breathing. Maybe it was some secret Christian thing- the secret of how to breathe while talking. She'd have to ask her one day.

"Hi, Max. I hope this isn't a bad time, but I was looking at the comments of, uhm, the vlog I did last week- the one where I asked you for some help?" Max remembered it fairly well. Kate was pretty good at giving advice, but when it came to the likes of dating, romancing and anything that would involve her pastor mumbling about "Leaving space for Jesus", Kate was out of her depth, without even armbands to help keep her afloat. Faced with a surprising amount of questions on how to ask someone out, she ended up having Max pop in on the video. She had more experience than Kate, and... Well, she didn't fight with Victoria, but things were still tense between the two. Max had been the easiest person for her to talk to.

"Yeah, I remember. I didn't... Oh jeeze, nobody got hurt from my advice, did they?" Of course, while Max did have more experience with dating than Kate, most people did. So, whilst Max did her best, it wasn't as if she could cover every issue on the questions she'd focused on. A pan girl who'd only dated two people wasn't the Dating Expert, after all. If one even existed. Max quietly suspected that everyone was nervous when going on a date, even if they'd been on a dozen in the past month alone.

"Not at all! They, uhm, the viewers? They really liked you." Kate had the cutest habit of pausing when she was nervous, filler inserting itself into her sentences. She knew she shouldn't find it cute with how Kate hated it, but Max found most things Kate did cute. Not... That she was going to mention it. Kate still needed to work on accepting compliments without melting into a puddle of adorably embarrassed goo, let alone compliments from a girl who was into her. Which, in and of itself, was another kettle of fish. A complex kettle of fish that involved uncertain orientation, religious issues and plain naivety on one end, and an unwillingness to jeopardize a friendship on the other.

“Like, they really liked you Max. I got about double my usual views on that video.” A pang of guilt went through Max at how she never really watched Kate’s videos, rather obvious on her face given by the confusion on Warren’s. Max raised her hand to let him know it was alright. If she could point out a flaw in Warren, it was the fact that any time his friends seemed worried, he’d assume the worst. He was probably thinking that Kate was talking about how she was attacked by a Facehugger the night before or something.

“That’s… That’s great, Kate!”

“Mmhmm. Which is why I was, uh, wondering if you’d be okay with being in another video? Like, for the whole thing, not just a… A consulting role…” Trailing off, filler, general nervousness… Kate was worried about asking Max this, beyond the general fact that she probably felt like she was imposing- despite Max repeatedly telling her she’d never been bothered by offers to be in a video.

“I’d love to, Kate. Do you mind if we talk about this a bit later? Me and Warren are over at the Whales right now, an-”

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know! I’m so, so sorry for interrupting! W-We can talk later, yeah! Sorry, sorry!” Aaaand she was gone. Damn it. Max sighed, slipping her phone into her bag. Knowing Kate, she’d now be either fussing on Alice or burying her face in her pillows, consumed with mortification over something incredibly trivial. Not that Warren was trivial.

“Is everything alright? I could hear Kate there, and…” Warren paused, shrugging. “Well. I could hear Kate. She’s never that loud, except for when there was that spider. her parents aren’t getting on her case again, are they?” For someone who, frankly, was about as sturdy as a twig, Warren could be incredibly defensive of his friends. Something he needed to probably cool down on, Max thought.

“No, nothing like that. She was just asking me to be in another video and kinda went into panic mode when I said we were here.” She was probably okay, yeah. The worst case scenario was that Kate was now shovelling herself full of ice cream, and that was hardly a terrible fate for most people, Kate included.

“Oh, right. You were in one last week, right? Her views were insane!” Instantly, they were back to happy Warren. “I mean, she normally gets pretty good views- good looking girl, good sounding advice, why wouldn’t she? But with you… Damn, Mighty Max. If she had those things monetized, she’d be making mad bank.” One day, Warren would realize a big reason of why she called him a dork was the outdated slang. Probably some day in the far flung future. Maybe when he was a ghost, calling things radical and talking about gnarly skating.

“Wait. What do you mean, mad… How many views did she get?” If she could remember right- which was unlikely, coming from the girl who often mixed up left and right when she woke up- then Kate averaged around about three thousand views a video. Not monetized, of course. Even if it was just from ads, she’d feel guilty about taking money for simple advice. Again, Max thought- she was far too nice for her own good.

“I only checked a few hours after it went up, but if I remember right, it was around… Like, fifteen thousand views, Max. You two were a hit!” That was after one day?! Not a week of a popular video, but after a day? Hell, not even a day if Warren was telling the truth. And Kate’d only just brought it up now, despite them seeing each other every day? Not just nice. Humble.

“Oh, wowsers. That’s… Intense.” Even her most popular cover had only managed to break seven thousand views, and Max knew she shouldn’t be saying it “only” broke that. “I get why she’d want me to be in another video, then. And… It’d be fun, y’know?” She viewed answering the questions last time as a guided conversation, bouncing ideas off of Kate to find what was best for what people were asking. It’d be just like that.”

“Yeah, you should totally do it! Hell, rope in Chloe. Three hot girls? You’ll be the most popular vloggers in a small Oregon town ever!” It was nice that they’d graduated from cute to hot, but… Well, she barely knew Chloe. She’d acted like a tit in front of her, too…

“Warren? Let’s… Keep it realistic, ‘kay?” She smiled gently, sighting a waitress coming over with their orders. “Eat, go back, and then we’ll see. Food’s the priority here, man.”

“Fine. Just, promote me in the video, okay? I’m a catch, there’ll be loads of people dying for a guy like me.”

“Dork.”


	4. Exposition- Part The First.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some necessary exposition that should've came earlier, if I was able to work it into the story without being hamfisted. Explaining the basis of a few of the characters channels, with more to come later.

It’d been a natural choice for Warren, really. After all, he spent a fair amount of his free time gaming, why not use that for his channel? Sure, a Let’s play channel wasn’t original, but nothing was anymore. It was a lot cheaper than any time of science stuff, which was another big factor in his decision.

And after doing some basic filming, he found he had a knack for it. Even if the initial investment in equipment was a bit expensive- mostly getting a decent camera for the end slate green screen, along with a mic of good quality- it was well worth it. He enjoyed commenting over his favourite games, and it got him a decent number of views. The weekly movie review was an enjoyable break, and if he could ever convince Brooke that it’d be fun to join him on a video… Well, the more the merrier, right?

~~~

Kate wasn’t entirely sure how she ended up giving advice in her videos. Originally, it was just some rambly blog thing done to fulfill the requirements of their homeroom homework. Enough to get the job done- she didn’t like to put minimal effort into things, but she wasn’t made for speaking on video, she thought. It seemed vain to talk about herself and nothing else, even if nobody else would watch it.

It just seemed a natural extension to ask for comments to reply to, really. Audience participation- according to Warren- was key in seeming personable, and it meant she didn’t have to talk much about herself. It started as the last minute or two of the vlogs having her talk to the audience, then it was the last five, and somehow, she found herself dedicating at least half the video to questions, often more.

And it did seem to help! She could pride herself on that. From follow up comments, the advice seemed to help people. It was never anything serious, but that didn’t matter. Any good in the world was better than nothing, and should she ever find herself deeply concerned for someone, she could just send them a PM with a few hotlines listed. Not much, but better than nothing. That’s all Kate had ever hoped for.

~~~  
What else was she going to do? Victoria, in her own words, was the “best dressed bitch in this place.” Why not let the world know, and maybe even help people realize just how poorly they’d dressed themselves beforehand? She didn’t have to worry about equipment or props, after all. Her wardrobe was practically bottomless, let alone her bank account.

Sure, she had to tone her language down- a lesson learned after about half the class experienced the delight of Mrs Ericson yelling at them for half of eternity- but otherwise, there really weren’t any downsides. About a half hour of filming every few days, a bit of time spent on touching up the video- a necessary drag- and then just leaving it to render. Piece of cake.

And if anyone ever complained about all the clothes she bought, she had an excuse for it now by way of schoolwork.

~~~

It was the perfect way to get the Step-Douche off of her back. He couldn’t complain when Chloe was bringing in money on a regular basis, without getting up to any bullshit or robbery- his words, not her own. It wasn’t as fun with Rachel being gone for the past few months, but she couldn’t have everything. Not that it’d stop her trying to.

And above all else, getting past the admittedly sweet money and giving her something to do… It was fun. Sure, sometimes people would look like a tit, but that was the point of a prank. She tried to stick to stuff that wouldn’t do anything hella embarrassing to people, but it happened sometimes. It was just how life went, and if they complained, tough titties.

 

~~~

 

Freezing. You never really knew what it was like to almost freeze till it happened to you. Being tossed into the cold end of a pool might be a shock to the system, but it doesn’t come close to the creeping cold that sets into your bones and chills you thoroughly, that makes you plead for the comfort of your bed and the ability to curl up in it with a content smile on your face.

 

If Rachel could have her bed at that moment, life would be complete. As things were, however, she was currently freezing her ass off in the Himalaya’s. It was her idea to be there, sure, and she was infinitely grateful for it- the trip itself had already nearly paid for itself just in the number of views her vlogs were getting. A bit annoying to need to worry about the money on her holiday, but she couldn’t help it. It was in her nature.

  
It’d nearly be over soon, too. Just a day or so of the descent was left, travelling back to Kathmandu, and then she’d be comfortable as heck on a plane, looking forward to seeing her friends. Not being able to talk to Chloe or Frank for the past week was gradually getting to her, and if it went on for too much longer, she’d most likely end up making little sock puppets to talk to, and  _ that _ was too much for even her to do.


	5. The Camera Is Rolling- Chapter Four

Even if he was a dork, it didn’t change the fact that Max could trust Warren on most things. It wasn’t always that way, but that’s the wonderful thing about the progression of time- people change. Views will develop, people gain tact, and some people even manage to realize just what’s meant by “like a brother to me” means. In less time than Max wanted, but that was life.

And thanks to that, it made talking about anything even vaguely relationship based easy as pie with Warren. He was able to counter the views that Max had on herself that worked against her- whenever she complained about how she looked and that nobody in the Bay would go near her, he’d offer himself as a counterexample to that, alongside a fair few mentions of times he’d seen others eyeing her up. Which, once she got past her blushing, was pretty damn enjoyable. 

“Besides. You’re acting like it’s the be-all end-all of the matter.” Warren said, snapping Max out of her own little reverie. “I mean, really? So what if you’ve got a wonky tooth? You’ve got a mouth full of them, and you don’t really show your teeth much when you smile.” Warren gave his own faux-grin to demonstrate, mimicking something MAx’d never seen herself. Sure, she smiled in videos, but she tried to ignore that. And to ignore hearing her own voice.

“And besides even that-” And with this, Warren pressed his finger into Max’s forearm, earning him an annoyed glare and tiny whuff of pain from Max, alongside a glance as they walked down the familiar boardwalk of the Bay’s bay. “Really? Your smile? Max, out of every last damn bit about you, I’m pretty sure one thing that looks a bit weird isn’t going to make Cloe think there’s nothing hot about you. “

“I know, I know! But it’s hard to think that way. You don’t have to see my smile constant-” She sighed, shaking her head. “Okay, you do. You don’t have to worry about how people will think about the smile, though.”

“And you don’t have to worry about my lazy eye, or my limp, or…” Warren trailed off, shrugging. “D’you get me? It isn’t like you’re unique about not fully liking how you look.” He knew he sounded annoyed, Max could tell that, even if he wasn’t. It was a conversation they must’ve had a million times over beforehand, and nobody could repeat themselves indefinitely without eventually getting even the tiniest bit aggravated.

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m just scared she’ll end up thinking I’m ugly. Or anyone else.” She mumbled, shrugging. It wasn’t as if she only had eyes for Chloe, after all, just that she was the only person to catch her eyes in recent memory. Her love of sk8r bois had said c u l8r boi, and as shallow as it was, she couldn’t think of anyone who had a nice ass that wasn’t either out of her league, of incompatible sexuality, or taken. It made things difficult.

“Max. Really. I’ve personally experienced people asking about you to me.” He would’ve also mentioned all the Youtube comments, but he didn’t exactly feel like you could ever trust what Youtube people said. He could speak from experience on the matter he had- out of everything, gaming seemed to attract incredible amounts of vitriol from people with worrying ability to spell.

“So strangers think I’m cute. So w-” Max shook her head, something she knew she did far too much. She’d end up hurting her neck if she kept it up. “Sorry, that was shitty of me. But you know what I mean when I say it’s different. I’m don’t have a shot-” Another frown, but from Warren this time- “With Chloe as things are. She barely knows me. Hell, we talked a bit when we were younger, and I’m like some… Stranger ot her.”

“And strangers become friends, and friends can- on hopefully occasions- become more than friends, remember?” He explained, stumbling for a second as the footpath up to where he’d parked took a rather uneven turn. Being gangly and clumsy had its downsides. It’d probably be better to say it had the upside of having some people think he was cute, but he wanted to focus on the positive aspect of it all. 

“In a long, long time, Wartortle, and that’s assuming she’ll even wanna talk to me, assuming she doesn’t have some secret girlfriend, assuming she doesn’t… Doesn’t…” She trailed off once she realized she’d left Warren back around ten seconds of walking behind. Turning, she found him to be looking less angry with her and more disappointed, like the time she ended up dropping his USB of drm-free games into a pitcher of water.

“Maybe, maybe, maybe. Blah blah blah.” Warren gestured vaguely as he began to talk, starting at a rather rapid speed and accelerating from there. “So what if she isn’t single now? You don’t know that, and there’s no harm in trying. So what if she might not wanna know you, when she’s already said you sound pretty cool? Hell, so what if she might not even be into dweeby photographers/musicians? You don’t know, Max, and it’s arrogant to assume so!”

Warren only paused thanks to the sudden increase of his voices volume, spiking in such a way that it’d attract attention if it wasn’t for the fact they were pretty much alone in the car park. He looked less guilty and more ashamed of himself- he usually managed to contain himself whenever his emotions got going, but that didn’t offer any excuse for shouting at his friend.

“I.. Sorry. I shouldn’t treat you like that. But I mean it, Max. You don’t know and, until you talk to Chloe, you can’t know. I’m not saying you should go up and ask her out, I know- weird enough from a stranger, let alone one she’s barely showed attention to. But you need to try to, yeah? Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But someday, Max Power, you’ll ask her. She might say yeah, sure, she might- she hopefully will- say yes.”

“But if you keep humming and hawing about this, I’m going to drive you over to her house and make you ask, consequences be fucked. Alright?” He finished, his aggravated pacing having managed to bring the pair over to his car, Max leaning against it as many faux-bad boys from bands had done in the past in photo shoots.

“I… Okay. Cross my heart, I’ll ask her later. “ Max finally nodded, smiling sympathetically. Even for someone as impassioned as Warren, an outburst along those lines was more than out of the norm. Not a bad thing, not by far, but still surprising. Maybe it showed how much he cared about his friends, or how he could be passionate about almost anything.

“Hell, I’ll try tweeting her, just to start talking. IS that okay? Does that please Supreme Leader Warren?” Half to remove the tension from the situation, and half to poke fun at the sudden show of command from Warren, Max nevertheless hoped Warren wouldn’t the vaguely odd nickname, even as they clumsily got inside of his car.

“Mhm. But I’m keeping you to that promise. I swear, if you don’t message her? I’m gonna upload all the outtakes from videos you’ve sent me.” And with that, Warren did his best to move to the side as Max slapped his arm gently, rolling her eyes.

“Didn’t we say something about you not talking, and not threatening me on threat of Brooke waking up to an invite to a date with you?”


	6. The Camera Is Rolling- Chapter Five.

As she collapsed onto her dorms bed, Max debated an age-old question. How were you supposed to introduce yourself to someone beyond bumping into one another? It was easier when Max was younger. She’d always been, at the best of times, an awkward mess, and that was something Chloe  _ did _ know. She didn’t seem like the type of person to linger on the past, but Max was convinced that she still had vivid memories of the time Max face planted and lost a tooth. 

 

So, that was two things going against her now. Three, really. She didn’t know how to start a conversation, she thought Chloe had some preconceived notion of her being a complete and utter idiot, and she never did well when talking to hot girls. She didn’t exactly go weak at the knees and stutter near them, but Max lost the little eloquence she managed to keep hold of the majority of the time. There was just some part of her that couldn’t think straight.

 

Did Max go for funny? A pithy little remark about bumping into someone cute? Self-deprecation about her clumsiness? Hell, maybe talking about Chloe’s videos would be a good way to start talking?  _ Hey, it’s the girl who fell on her butt earlier, wanna talk? You looked hella sweet from the video at the lighthouse last week! _

 

Max had never deleted an unsent message so quickly as she did then. It was forced- more than forced, really, she was talking like a completely different person. If she talked like that, Max knew sh’d sound like she was trying to get a collab of some sort set up, and Chloe didn’t look like she’d be too fond of that. Whilst the idea didn’t really appeal to Max, she’d probably have to be herself.

 

There wasn’t going to be any harm in it, right? Right. Max was just being friendly, and put herself across nicely, without being a pain to talk to. Or sound arrogant. Or shy, really, who wanted to talk to some shy stranger? Really, it was a small task- be yourself, be genuine, be bold. Max could do that. 

 

_ Hey, Chloe. Wasn’t sure if you’d wanna talk, but hit me up if you wanna!  I gotta know more people outside of Blackwell. _ Ten minutes of consideration and inner debate, and it was all Max had been capable of mustering. Of course, the first five minutes were spent on her phone, typing and deleting each word, before Max realized the main issue was her medium. 

 

Her phone, really? Max couldn’t stand texting for someone who did it quite often. It wasn’t tactile, and it wasn’t as if her phone was state of the art. It was throwing her off. It’d taken another three minutes to get her laptop running, one to open up Twitter, and a final minute to retype the message with a quick check for any spelling errors. Or, at least, the wrong kind of errors.

 

Max hoped it was enough. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was- was she funny, was she charming, was she flirty… She couldn’t nail her own personality down, so all she could hope was that Chloe would appreciate the message and that she was inclined to reply. Max knew that was a tall ask, but as she opened up another tab to watch something- anything, really- to distract her, she also knew she could only hope.

 

If things went poorly, they went poorly. That’s the way things were meant to be. It didn’t mean you should just accept that things were awful, not at all, but it  _ did  _ mean you weren’t always going to succeed. “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose…” Yeah. That… Bald guy said it, right? Warren would know, probably. Maybe she’d ask him tomorrow. It’d be good to finally try something Warren was pestering her to watch.

 

Before Max could really begin planning tomorrow, however, a notification distracted her. If it was just a highlighted tweet or something, Max would’ve ignored it. But given her heart skipped a beat on realizing it was a reply, she knew she had to take action. Chloe didn’t know her, didn’t understand she needed a break in talking and would simply vanish during a conversation.

 

_ No sweat, my dude i get how it is. There’s like two chill dudes at blackwell, i don’t blame you wanting to talk to someone outside of the place. _ “Oh, she… Types like she tweets.” Max wasn’t the type to get salty over spelling, as Warren would say, but she did like a bit of capitalisation, some punctuation. Chloe… Might be a pain to get used to her typing. 

 

_ Though i did get kicked outta blackwell. You know they migth lock you up for talking 2 me, right? _ Smiling at that, Max made herself comfortable before replying- she really needed a new desk chair- and did her best to act like Max, and not some stammering, awkward teen.  _ I’ll live, I think. They’ve kinda totalitarian, but I don’t think they’ll ever confiscate my phone. _

 

_ If you say so, Max. though, c’mon. Cute hipster with a nice singing voice, you gotta know plenty of people already _ . Max would like to say she responded calmly to that, but being called cute, or any variant of it, tended to leave her a giggling mess, cheeks burning up. That was one benefit of Chloe not being there in person, it seemed.

 

_ Honestly, yes, but there’s a lack of funny punk chicks. I want to diversify my friends and I left my fake ID back in Seattle. _

 

_ I wont complain, then.  _ Max had never known relief like that- almost instantly, she regretted mentioning Seattle. Her and Chloe had been getting on decently before she up-and-left without much warning, and she’d been nervous that mentioning it would lead to Chloe thinking she was a jerk.

 

_ Though i cant stick around to chat r.now.  I got some stuff to do for tomororw’s vid. I’ll catch u tomorrow, max! Might crash class for you _

 

It was brief, sure, but Max felt that went well. Chloe seemed happy to talk to her, and she was interested in talking tomorrow! And she’d called her cute. They might even get a chance to meet up, if classes let out early. And she called her cute! Grinning to herself, Max spent a few more minutes on her computer, idly flicking between news articles as she thought about the fact Chloe had called her cute.

 

And although she would’ve liked to stay up a few more hours thinking about the next day, Max knew she needed to go to bed, unless she wanted to pass out and drool on Kate’s shoulder again. Switching from her usual clothes to almost oddly cozy pajamas, Max crawled into bed, thinking about the fact Chloe had called her cute.

 

_ Last time I felt like this, it was when Kate called me cute…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK 
> 
> But, on a serious note, I'd like to actually focus on writing this once more. I've been in a funk the past few months, and I want to get back to writing. I hope you enjoy this chapter- it's my first time writing something SFW and plotty for months, so I apologise for any rustines


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